Smoked Pork Chops

I have been seeing beautiful thick cut pork chops all over the place recently and had to try some on my Weber kettle.  I decided to make smoked pork chops instead of grilling them since they were nice and thick.  They turned out great!

I started with two bone in pork chops that were over an inch thick.  I seasoned the fellas up and put them on my kettle with indirect heat and hickory smoke.

After 90 minutes at 275F the smoked pork chops were looking pretty nice!

The pork chops were glazed on both sides with a honey drizzle for a little shine and sweetness.

The pork chops were cooked until they hit an internal temperature of 150F then they were pulled from the kettle. 

These were some seriously great eats!  Thanks for looking!

Frittatas in a Weber Griddle

I picked up a cast iron Weber griddle the other day and have been having fun playing with the toy.

I used the griddle to make a frittata on my Weber Genesis Silver A.  I started by putting down a layer of hash browns.

Then I stuck in some mushrooms, black beans and crumbled bacon.

Poured in a half dozen scrambled eggs...

And grilled this on top of a baking stone on my grill that was running at 400F.  I let it bake for about 20 minutes.  It came out looking pretty nice.

The hash browns stuck a little to the bottom of the griddle but they still got some nice color on them.

Added a little hot sauce and had a pretty nice breakfast courtesy of my new cast iron Weber griddle!

Sweet!

Weber Q Filets

Thanksgiving week had my family at my parent's house.  My folk's grill is a little Weber Q.  The grill is a fun little thing but takes a little getting used to after years of cooking on the big Genesis grills.  The single burner Weber Q just doesn't get as hot as a big grill; no big deal, just have to budget for more time.

My Dad likes to slice up a beef tenderloin in 1.5 inch steaks that we grill up on the Weber Q.  You need to pre-heat this grill on High for at LEAST 20 minutes to get the cast iron grates hot enough to lay down grill marks.  The grill might be little but you can still fit 7 or 8 filets on at once.

It was dark by the time these steaks were finished so no good finished pictures were taken.  No problems though...I had an extra steak set aside that I got to grill for lunch the next day!

This steak was simply seasoned with salt and pepper then put onto the pre-heated grill.

The steak was flipped after 7 minutes...grill marks were "meh".

After another 10 minutes the steak was flipped and checked for temp.  It was reading 140F at this point so I pulled it off and let it rest.

I know that 17 minutes seems like a long time to grill a steak for medium rare but this grill just wasn't throwing off that much heat. 

I always have fun cooking on this little Weber Q.  It is even more fun to play with the Weber Q griddle accessory to make up some killer sandwiches. 

Hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving and are gearing up for a spectacular Christmas!

Done with Turkey Legs

I give up.  This was my fourth attempt at cooking up turkey legs and I still haven't gotten any decent ones.  The flavor is pretty nice but dealing with all of those stingy tendons is driving me NUTS!  I wasn't able to take a single decent bite without having to spit out a tendon of some type.

These were brined overnight and rubbed with Bone Sucking Sauce Seasoning before I threw them on the Weber kettle.

These were smoked a little on the hot side for about two hours then sauced with Sweet Baby Rays.  Cooked to an internal temp of 167F.

Flavor was spot on.  Nice smoke, great balance with sweet and salt.  But damn those tendons!

Rotisserie Chicken Thighs

I tried out a new chicken brine this week and wanted to pass it along.  Instead of the usual water/salt/sugar mix I went with 1/3 cup of salt dissolved in a quart of pineapple juice.  I brined a bunch of thighs overnight and grilled them on my Weber the next day.  The thighs were rinsed and dried then seasoned with a little bbq rub. 

I had so much fun using my rotisserie basket for chicken wings the other day I decided to use it again for these thighs.

After about an hour the thighs were looking pretty tasty.

Right after I took this picture I brushed the thighs with some Sweet Baby Ray bbq sauce and let them spin a few more minutes while the sauce set.  I was very pleased with the outcome; I could really taste the pineapple!

Good eats!

Spinning Some Chicken Wings

I've got a thing for chicken wings.  I've got a thing for rotisseries.  The two were bound to come together at some point!

I seasoned a dozen wings with salt and pepper, loaded them into a rotisserie basket, and fired up the old Weber gasser!

The wings got spun for about 45 minutes and looked incredible tucked into the basket.

The wings were nice and crunchy!  Beautiful color :)

I sauced these guys up and wolfed them down!  Good eats!!

God Bless Chicken Wings!!

World Cup Steaks

The World Cup is finally over!  

I usually love the World Cup but this year was an exception.  It burns my chaps that so many games went into Penalty Kicks.  Can you imagine the NBA Finals being decided with a Free Throw contest??  I realize that the final match did not go to PKs but it was still a snoozer.  Actually I did take a nap in the second half and woke up to see that I hadn’t missed a thing!

The best part of the World Cup for me was some New York Strip steaks that I grilled over at my brother-in-law’s house.  The steaks were pretty simple, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled to medium rare. 

I think I grilled for about four minutes per side at high heat.

What I really enjoyed about the steaks was since I was grilling at his house I got to use his Weber Genesis Silver A grill.  I am used to grilling on my Genesis 1000 and the Silver A is a nice change.  The Genesis Silver A is a smaller two burner grill.  It heats up fast and I never have any flare-up issues when I’m using it.  He has had the grill for a long time and it is still in great shape.  FYI, here is a link to learn a little more about the Weber Genesis Silver A.

Just in case the fine folks over at FIFA read this blog I have a great idea for them.  If the score is tied at the end of regulation then take away the goalie for each time for extra time play.  This will make sure that at least one team scores a goal in extra time and should put an end to this Penalty Kick nonsense!

Thanks for dropping by!

Moinks on the Loose!

I made up my first batch of Moinks the other day.  They looked amazing and tasted pretty bland.  At least I have a starting point!  A moink is simply a bacon wrapped meatball.  The name comes from the beef meatball (moo) being wrapped in bacon (oink).  I figured any meat wrapped in bacon had to be pretty tasty.  

 

I made a batch of meatballs with a pretty simple recipe of ground beef, bread crumbs and barbecue sauce.  The meatballs were wrapped in bacon (secured with a toothpick) and dusted with a mix of sugar and chili powder.

I threw these guys on my Jumbo Joe and let them cook for about thirty minutes.  I sauced them at the end and let them go a few more minutes as the sauce set.

  

I thought they looked great but was very disappointed in how bland they tasted.  They were nowhere near as good as a bacon cheeseburger.  

 I asked around on Twitter and got plenty of ideas on how to improve my moink recipe.  It pretty much all comes down to making a better meatball.   Quite a few people suggested adding Italian sausage into the meatball mix.  I’ll give that a go next time around.

Thanks for visiting!

Grilled Ravioli

Here is a quick and fun little thing to throw on the grill, Grilled Ravioli! 

These are not your standard pasta ravioli that we are working with.  Instead, these are easy ravioli made with won-ton wrappers.  The basic process is bone-headed easy.  Lay out a won-ton wrapper and add about a tablespoon of a pre-cooked filling.  The filling needs to be pre-cooked as the ravioli do not stay on the grill very long.  

 For these ravioli I used some leftover rotisserie chicken, basil, cheese and Alfredo sauce.  These would be equally delicious with a mushroom and sausage mix or even leftover pulled pork with slaw.

After the filling is laid down brush the edges of the wrapper with an egg wash and place another wrapper on top.  Press down along the edges to seal the ravioli. 

If you want your ravioli to be golden brown and have some extra poof then you can brush the tops of them with a little more egg wash.  Throw these guys onto a hot grill and keep your eyes on them.  You want these to turn golden brown and become super crunchy.  Depending upon how hot you run your grill this will take between 3 and 10 minutes. They will burn easily if you have things too hot so have your tongs ready to keep these things flipping!

Bacon Wrapped Steak Bites

Here is a fun and tasty little thing to throw on the grill; bacon wrapped steak bites!

These are real simple to make.  I started with some sirloin steak and cut it into strips about one inch wide and two inches long.  I grabbed a mallet and pounded the steak until I had nice thin strips.  Season both sides with Montreal Steak Seasoning (or whatever else floats your boat).  I added a piece of Swiss cheese, a mushroom slice and a piece of precooked bacon on one side of the steak strip.

 Roll everything together, wrap with bacon and shove a toothpick through the middle! 

I dusted these with some chili powder and brown sugar then grilled with indirect high heat until the bacon crisped up a little.

This was a tasty little snack and I had fun making them.  It is always nice to throw something a little different on the grill!

Crispy Grilled Chicken

I found a recipe on a box of Hungry Jack instant mashed potato flakes for crispy oven baked chicken wings and decided to adapt the technique for the grill.

I started by brining a batch of chicken drumsticks overnight (2 quarts water, half cup salt, full cup sugar). 

The next day I rinsed the chicken, patted dry then coated it liberally with hot sauce.  I rolled the wings in potato flakes then grilled with indirect high heat for about an hour.

It was a struggle to brown the flaky potato crust with indirect heat.  When the chicken was almost done cooking I moved it to direct heat and got the crispy, golden skin I was looking for.  I had to turn the chicken often when I was using direct heat as the potato crust really wanted to burn.

The crust was delicious and the chicken was extremely juicy.  The brine worked wonders! We really didn’t notice much flavor from the hot sauce which was surprising. 

I really like the idea of a potato coating and it worked reasonably well.  I will be adapting this for future cooks and see how to get the most out of the concept.